


It's Not Really About the Escape Room

by chelseyelric



Category: Onward (2020)
Genre: Escape Rooms, Fluff, Gentle Kissing, M/M, Men Crying, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Praise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelseyelric/pseuds/chelseyelric
Summary: Barley drags Ian to an escape room under the guise of needing to keep their questing skills sharp. After nothing goes according to plan, Barley admits to another reason he wanted to complete the challenge. (Part of my Barlian Discord's Fluff Challenge and dedicated to Honeyjoe!)
Relationships: Barley Lightfoot & Ian Lightfoot, Barley Lightfoot/Ian Lightfoot
Comments: 14
Kudos: 42





	It's Not Really About the Escape Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Honeyjoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honeyjoe/gifts).



> Hurray! Fluff! XD I mean there's some emotion and comfort to it but I really like how this fic goes :3 Please let me know what you think at the end! Enjoy!

“Ta da!” Barley bellowed, gesturing grandly to the building behind him. It didn’t look like...anything, really. But Ian still got out, bringing his staff along.

“Where are we?”

“Magic Merlin’s Escape Room!” He ushered Ian into the plain brick complex, down a long hallway to a front desk of sorts. 

“Welcome to Magic Merlin’s,” droned an unenthusiastic cyclops in a bad approximation of wizard robes. “How many?”

Ian raised an eyebrow to Barley but his brother didn’t seem phased. “Two, if you please! My brother and I wish to embark on a quest of wits, paralleled by no other!”

The cyclops gave a look that said ‘If I roll my eye at another customer, I’ll get a third write up.’ “Okay, $35, please.”

Barley handed the worker a large plastic bag filled with a few bills, but mostly quarters and dimes.

‘Third write up, third write up, third write up-’

“Thank you,” they said, simply putting the bag next to the ancient looking computer on their desk. “This way, please,...brave questers.”

Ian shot Barley another look and, this time, he saw it. “What?”

“Why are we doing an escape room? We’ve been on an actual quest and actually escaped...rooms.”

“Right, BUT, who knows when our next one will be? We need to keep our skills sharp just in case.”

“In case of wh-”

“Alright, here we are. You have 60 minutes to open the door. Any questions?”

Ian tried to sputter out a few words before Barley cut him off, pushing him into the cluttered space. “Nope! We got this! Should be a piece of cake!”

And with that, the door was closed and locked. A large timer began ticking above the frame.

“Barley!”

“What?”

Ian dropped his staff and scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration. “Why did you not ask them anything!?”

“Because we’ve done quests before. We don’t need help.”

“But what if that was a PART of a PUZZLE!?”

Barley’s face went blank at the prospect. “Oh.”

Silence fell between them for only a beat before Barley was back to the task at hand and Ian reluctantly followed.

((00:43:02 minutes remaining)

“Okay, so the black light revealed the number order. Why isn’t it working!?”

Ian was waving a magnet around a book, hoping for some sort of reaction. “Did you try the numbers in reverse?”

A pause. “Thanks, Ian!”

((00:30:30) minutes remaining)

“Move that picture over to the south wall!” Barley called, gesturing to a framed picture of a water gun. Ian’s face scrunched in confusion. “Why?”

“Because that last clue hinted at facing the east and the squirt gun in the picture is facing left. So that means for it to face the east, it has to be on the south wall!”

“That...sort of makes sense.”

Barley belly laughed. “Of course it does! I figured out that clue about the ravens, this is nothing!”

((00:05:17) minutes remaining)

Barley sat slumped against the door, looking completely dejected. Ian crouched in front of him. “C’mon, Barley. We still have some time left.”

The older seemed to fold a bit further into himself. “I can’t do it.”

Ian’s heart broke a little seeing Barley give up so completely. “Can you at least move away from the door, then? I don’t want you to get hit when they open it.”

“Who cares?”

Ian lowered himself beside Barley on the floor, setting his staff beside them. “I care. What’s wrong?”

Pulling his hat off of his head, Barley let out a heavy sigh. “Everything’s wrong. I mean...this is my thing, you know? This is the only thing I’m good at.”

Ian blinked owlishly. “What?”

“Everyone I know is so good at what they do. Mom’s a great writer, you’re a recognized mathlete-” the way he said it held such pride, not the taunting Ian had come to associate with the term at school. “-and a talented wizard-in-training and I just...this is MY THING. The ‘useless knowledge’ thing, the ‘quest leader’ thing. They’re mine and...I can’t even do them as a game.”

Ian had no idea why this was weighing so heavily on him. His brother was normally so confident. Had he always believed this? “You’re good at so many things, Barley. Things that matter much more than an escape room.”

A muted scoff. “No, I’m not.”

“Barley, look at me.”

Ian pulled one of Barley’s thick arms out of their cross with relative ease, much easier than if he hadn’t wanted him to. His eyes still refused to meet Ian’s as he purposefully laced their fingers together. 

“Fine. Should I make a list? Because I will! To start, you’re so good with your hands! I mean, how many people can say that they built a car from scratch? And you’ve done it twice, now! You can always make people laugh. You think of others before yourself and you’re great with kids and-”

Barley peeked his hazel eyes out from under his hair.

“...um…” Ian began to get a bit flustered, feeling suddenly on the spot even though he’d just offered to do this. “And you know history and magic better than anyone. We never would have completed the quest without your knowledge and I wouldn’t be able to teach myself magic. You’re making me better every day.”

Barley fully unwrapped himself and leant his forehead tenderly on Ian’s, their hands clasped together between them. Ian realized that Barley never really heard these sorts of things about himself, never really received praise. Only heard failed expectations of someone his age and gave endless praise to others.

Ian decided to be a bit more like Barley, starting now.

“I’ll be sure to tell you more often, okay? How amazing you are?” A small, wobbly smile was fixed on Barley’s face and Ian thought he may start crying. He tilted his head a bit more to place a chaste kiss on Barley’s lips, a bit chapped but still so soft. “You’re my favorite person, Barley Lightfoot. I’m proud to be with you.”

And with that, Barley did cry. And Ian held him as the clock wound down to zero. What they accomplished here felt good to both of them. Maybe not the practice they’d expected but something much more important and necessary.

**Author's Note:**

> So? What did you think! Please be sure to let me know! XD

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [It's Not Really About the Escape Room [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23894575) by [LouPF](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouPF/pseuds/LouPF)




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